Damiano's Defense

Damiano's Defense

Damiano, an Italian chess player, analyzed this
opening with condemnation; perhaps to his regret the opening
was attributed to him by calling the opening with his name.
Freeborough and Ranken call it, "The Damiano Gambit: so
named by Chess writers for purposes of identification,
without regard to authorship." Hence Damiano's Defense. In
any double King-pawn openings with 2. Nf3 Black has the
choice of either disregarding the Knight and playing 2. ...
Nf6 (The Petrov), or guarding the e-pawn. Black can guard
the e-pawn by Nc6 leading to many openings, but commonly the
Ruy Lopez. Another option Black has is to guard the e-pawn
by pushing the d-pawn up a square to d6 (Philidor's
Defense). Of course all openings can transpose into another
one. The one option that Black should not play (unless you're
an expert on this opening - you're not because only Sam
Sloan is, you're extremely lucky, or you want to throw your
opponent a curve) is 2. ... f6. The following in an
examination of Black's poorer choices, and how White must take
advantage of them. Go to
this
link if you would like diagrams of the first five moves of
3. Nxe5 fxe5.

Only good reply (Sam Sloan uses to beat players under 2100
USCF_:
3. ... Qe7
4. Nf3 d5
5. d3 dxe5
6. dxe4 +=
Schiffers-Chigorin, St. Petersburg1897.
Black will recapture the pawn, but with the f-pawn pushed
to f6 has a weakened position. Fritz 8 gives white a +.59
position after Qxe4. I have never seen this opening (without
searching for it) in tournament due to Black's slightly
lacking position. Go to
this link and
scroll down if you want the full game.

Black's bad replies - and what White should do to take
advantage. I teach these to my students - and they find
multiple wins against even good players who misunderstand
opening theory. Move 2. ... f6 is harmful without knowledge on
how to use it properly.
3. ... fxe5 (Dubious)
4. Qh5+ (two replies for Black)

4. ... g6 (Blocking check)
This loses the Rook with a fork by the Queen against the King and Rook.
5. Qxe5+ Qe7 (Black can get out of check more than one way.)
6. Qxh8 (With a winning advantage)

4. ... Ke7
5. Qxe5+ Kf7 (Forced)
6. Bc4+ (Two replies)

6. ... Kg6 (Mate within 11 moves)
7. Qf5+ Kh6
8. h4
I used to play 8. d3 or 8. d4 here but it can take an
additional three moves for mate if they sac their Bishop ;).
Also, 8. h4 gains control over the extremely important g5
square.

6. ... d5 (Fritz gives +- (3.97) White with an advantage
enough to win)
7. Bxd5+ Kg6
8. h4
All other moves lose the advantage back to less than a point.
8. ... h4 (or h5)
9. Bxb7!
If Black captures the Bishop White has mate in two (Qf5+...)
9. ... Bd6
10. Qa5
Again, all other moves lose the advantage down to less than a
point.
10. ... Nc6 (Black must lose a minor piece on the following
White move)
11. Bxc6 Rb8 (Saving the Rook)
White can then play out over twelve possible moves with an
advantage of +3 or more.
12. Nc3 (Fritz: +-(4.06) Now that White has done the work,
Black should resign.)